Thailand faces media clampdown

No news is not good news

Thai radio, television and internet operators will from tomorrow face closure if they disseminate "news and comments deemed a threat to national security and the monarchy", Reuters reports.

The Information Ministry invited the companies to a get-together designed to "seek cooperation" in enforcing the order "to restrict, control, stop or destroy information deemed to affect the constitutional monarchy".

Chief internet inspector Kritpong Rimcharonepak told reporters after the meeting: "We seek their cooperation not to present articles, remarks, or information that will infringe the democratic reform under the constitutional monarchy. They can still present political comments on their media, but if anything goes wrong, the caretakers of those media must take responsibility."

The order, effective from Friday, includes "a ban on live interviews on radio and television, phone-in comments and scrolling messages on television from mobile phones". ®